SUPERCELL
by
slowdanger
SUPERCELL is an evening-length multidisciplinary quintet performance responding to climate consciousness, media sensationalism, desensitization, & environmental collapse. The title refers to supercells, large storms of deep, persistent updrafts often resulting in many tornadoes. While supercells are terrifying, ominous, and harbingers of great damage, they are simultaneously breathtaking environmental events when witnessed from afar. The effect is similar to sensationalist media, instantly amplifying catastrophic events for an insatiable public consumption. The work begs the question, how do we cultivate hope during continually uncertain times?
Fusing corporeal mime techniques, contemporary and improvisational dance frameworks, live vocalization/spoken text, electronic/sample based music and interactive technology/set design, SUPERCELL builds a potent and tangible world on stage. Performers’ interactions have corresponding effects within their performance environment as they navigate a world in the midst of fallout from environmental collapse and toxic sensationalization. The amplified breaths and vocalizations of the dancers as a chorus function as a motif articulating the toxic environment’s effects on their bodies.
ARTIST BIOS
slowdanger | Co-Artistic Directors
taylor knight (they/them) & anna thompson (they/them) are co-founding artistic directors of slowdanger, a multidisciplinary performance organism based in Pittsburgh, PA. slowdanger uses a systematic approach to movement, integrative technology, found material, electronic instrumentation, vocalization, physiological centering, and ontological examination to produce their performance work, which utilizes ritual practice to delve into circular life patterning including effort, transformation, and death. Through the process of making each piece, slowdanger works with an ever deepening understanding of energy, synergy, action, gender, time, and storytelling. As a queer, non-binary led organization, slowdanger is committed to deconstructing the binaries of how performance and performers are viewed onstage through their performances, workshops and public facing engagements.
HARBOUR EDNEY
AJ LIBERT
CHRISTIAN WARNER
JASMINE HEARN
PROJECTILE OBJECTS
KIRA SHIINA
MAD RECITAL
TRAILER
PROGRAM SUPPORT
SUPERCELL is made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Mellon Foundation. SUPERCELL is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by Kelly Strayhorn Theater, The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center and NPN. SUPERCELL is also supported by the Opportunity Fund, The Pittsburgh Foundation and The Heinz Endowments, with additional residency support from NCCAkron, The Space Upstairs and New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts Department of Dance.
ACCESSIBILITY INFORMATION
12th Avenue Arts is fully accessible for wheelchairs and walkers. The lobby, bathrooms and theater spaces are at street level, and seating is available without the need for an elevator or stairs.
ACCESS NIGHT | FRIDAY, MAR 22 – Masking will be required and ASL interpretation will be provided at this performance.
For specific questions and accommodations, please contact Shirley at operations@velocitydancecenter.org
Harbour Edney | Lighting Designer (they/he)
Harbour Edney is a freelance lighting designer and installation artist who is currently nested in the Philadelphia area. Recent designs include Always the Hour (Annie Wilson), The Wild Party (Eagle Theatre), a hit dog will holler (Azuka Theatre Company), Chaat (Usiloquy Dance Designs), Papa (The New Hazlett Theatre) and Bruise & Thorn (Pipeline Theatre Company). They have designed for other companies such as Obvious Agency, The Bearded Ladies Cabaret, The Pillow Projects, The Kelly-Strayhorn Theatre, Alumni Theater Company and INTAR NYC. Harbour has a special love for dance and is thrilled and grateful to be working on SUPERCELL with this team.
Jasmine Hearn | Dramaturgical Support, Collaborating Media Design, and Collaborating Sound Design (they/them)
Jasmine Hearn is an internationally-touring interdisciplinary artist, director, performer, choreographer, organizer, doula, and teacher. They are committed to performance as an expansive practice that includes a spectrum of dance and somatic traditions and techniques, sound design, garment design, cooking, and the archiving of matrilineal memories. They give gratitude to Spirit, their mothers and aunties, and all the mothering Black people who have supported their moving, remembering body.
Nile Harris | Performer (he/him)
Nile Harris is a performer and director of live works of art. He has done a few things and hopes to do a few more, God willing.
AJ Libert | Performer (he/him)
AJ Libert from Pittsburgh, PA, started his dance training at the age of three. He graduated from PBT’s full time program, and then attended Point Park University where he received a BFA in Modern dance. AJ enjoys the complexities that movement exploration has to offer. Combining his love for the natural world with his love for movement drives AJ to continue to find deeper connections between the two, in hopes to merge both worlds seamlessly. AJ would like to thank his two beautiful mothers, without them he would not be where he is today.
ProjectileObjects | Scenic Designer and Technical Director (he/him)
Cornelius Henke III, also known as ProjectileObjects, is a multi-talented creative with a passion for video production and performance art. His work spans across various mediums, including music videos, motion graphics, live events, and interactive installations.
Cornelius is an activist and partner at Merging Media, a boutique digital media production company based in Pittsburgh, PA. In 2021, ProjectileObjects formed an LLC that offers a range of services, including conceptual design, development, engineering, fabrication, and installations. With a wealth of experience and expertise, Cornelius continues to captivate audiences with his unique vision and exceptional talent.
Slowdanger | Co-Artistic Directors
taylor knight (they/them) & anna thompson (they/them) are co-founding artistic directors of slowdanger, a multidisciplinary performance organism based in Pittsburgh, PA. slowdanger uses a systematic approach to movement, integrative technology, found material, electronic instrumentation, vocalization, physiological centering, and ontological examination to produce their performance work, which utilizes ritual practice to delve into circular life patterning including effort, transformation, and death. Through the process of making each piece, slowdanger works with an ever deepening understanding of energy, synergy, action, gender, time, and storytelling. As a queer, non-binary led organization, slowdanger is committed to deconstructing the binaries of how performance and performers are viewed onstage through their performances, workshops and public facing engagements.
Mad Recital | Costume Designer
Mad Recital is an avant-garde fashion label established in 2010. The designers involved in the label are Richard Ramirez (who started his own fashion label in 1997 prior) and Sean E. Ramirez-Matzus. Mad Recital focuses on deconstruction, repurposed garments, handmade techniques, alternative visions of beauty and unconventional designs. Drawing inspiration from nature, folk-lore, myths and legends, film and the arts as well as the history of avant-garde fashion, Mad Recital aims to create wearable art. The end goal, pieces that delight, unsettle, inspire and provoke. Their work has been sold at boutiques in Japan and France.
kira shiina | Performer (they/she)
kira shiina is a freelance dance and sound artist based in the land of the Lenape people known today as Philadelphia, PA. kira shiina received their dance education at Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts 6-12, going on to receive their BFA in Dance from the University of the Arts. In 2019, they presented their first solo work, DID YOU / FALL APART, exploring themes of memory, nostalgia, and intimacy in collaboration with painter Jameelah Platt at Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. They were a founding company member of Mark Caserta’s Big Kid Dance, having performed with the company from 2021-2023. She is currently a creative associate of choreographer Tommie-Waheed Evans, and has been a company member of his project-based company, waheedworks, since 2019. kira shiina holds an Adjunct Assistant Professor position at the UArts School of Dance.
Christian Warner | Performer (he/him)
Christian A. Warner is an interdisciplinary performing artist, choreographer, and director. Company credits include Boca Tuya, NVA & Guests, Sidra Bell Dance New York, TU Dance, Owen/Cox Dance Group, Ponybox Dance Theatre and Deeply Rooted. He has performed repertoire from creators Bryan Arias, Alvin Ailey, Aszure Barton, Darius Barnes, Rena Butler, Stefanie Batten-Bland, and Kayla Farrish. His choreography and direction has been commissioned by Owen/Cox, Trevor Jackson, McKoy Dance Project, James Madison University, Texas State University, Full Out Creative, Berit Ahlgren / Honeyworks, Ballet Co.Laboratory, and Demeatria Boccella.